OpenTechSchool2017-08-07T11:27:42+00:00http://blog.opentechschool.orgAleksaleks@opentechschool.orgGitHub from Scratch - „I fork you and you fork me“2013-12-05T00:00:00+00:00http://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/12/githubfromscratch-hamburg-december
<p>On November 30th 2013 during <a href="http://codeweek.eu">Europe Code Week</a> the workshop <a href="http://opentechschool.github.io/github-from-scratch/">Github from Scratch</a> was organized in Hamburg. 35 Learners and Coaches attended, learned together and had lots of fun.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-12-03-githubfromscratch-hamburg-december/0.jpeg" alt="picture" /></p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-12-03-githubfromscratch-hamburg-december/1.jpeg" alt="picture" /></p>
<p>Since July 2013 the OpenTechSchool Hamburg has organized a number of events and workshops: App Camps, JavaScript for Beginners, Hack Night, and Coaching Meetups. Last saturday was special: The <a href="http://opentechschool.github.io/github-from-scratch/">Github from Scratch</a> workshop took place for the first time. <a href="http://twitter.com/filtercake">Fabian</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/fallera">Isabel</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/salzig">Ben</a> did a great job in organizing an awesome event – and good news for all those who weren’t able to attend the one-day-workshop: The <a href="http://opentechschool.github.io/github-from-scratch/">learning material</a> created is open source and public to anyone interested.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-12-03-githubfromscratch-hamburg-december/4.jpeg" alt="picture" /></p>
<p>The learners created repositories, added files, put in HTML code, added CSS, and most importantly, forked each others repos and sent pull requests. At the end of the day, everyone had programmed their own version of a mini blog with kittens and minions. But not only did they learn about programming. Everyone met nice people with different backgrounds, interested to learn more about coding.
This is what makes these events special: You meet highly motivated people who spend their weekends to learn coding or teach others how to code. This is a unique learning atmosphere that you (unfortunately) hardly experience elsewhere – neither in school nor at work. And that’s the magic of the OpenTechSchool.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-12-03-githubfromscratch-hamburg-december/3.jpeg" alt="picture" /></p>
<p>Thanks to the organizers, coaches and to all the participants for this wonderful saturday! And thanks to Commerce Plus, Github and SinnerSchrader for supporting this event.</p>
<p>More workshops and events are planned for 2014 – in <a href="http://opentechschool.org/hamburg">Hamburg</a> and in all the other <a href="http://opentechschool.org/">OpenTechSchool</a> chapters worldwide. Stay tuned!</p>
App Summer Camp in Hamburg: It was awesome!2013-07-23T00:00:00+00:00http://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/07/app-summer-camp-in-hamburg-it-was-awesome
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-07-23-room.jpg" alt="Girls coding their first app" /></p>
<p>Great things are happening in Hamburg: Last week we had the first “<a href="http://app-summer-camp.opentechschool.org/">App Summer Camp</a>”. Twelve girls aged 13 to 15 learned how to develop Android Apps on their own. But they did not only learn programming. They also learned how to pitch and present their results to an audience. Another important part of the four day workshop was to meet female rolemodels who work as software engineers and mobile app developers.</p>
<p>With no or only little prior knowledge about programming the girls were at first rather shy. But it didn’t take very long for them to warm up. After having programmed their first apps with the <a href="http://appinventor.mit.edu">App Inventor</a>, everyone got excited. And so did we! First, they learned how to use basic functions of app programming, such as moving objects or integrating sounds. It was wonderful to see how creative the girls were!</p>
<p>Then, things became even more challenging. Every girl got up on stage and pitched an idea for an app. The goal was to find others for the team. 13 year old girls have awesome ideas for apps. And guess what, all of them did an awesome job pitching! After some discussions, five teams were formed: For example, one team developed an app that allows you to play “spin-the-bottle” even if you don’t have a bottle. Another team developed an app called “MyPresent”. This app suggests birthday gifts for boys or girls of different ages. While designing and implementing their apps, the girls experienced how much fun and how creative programming can be. Female coaches, who are all working as software engineers, helped the teams and gave feedback.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-07-23-coaches.jpg" alt="The Team and Coaches" /></p>
<p>As Friday was the final day of the camp, the apps had to be finished by noon. All teams were able to finalize their projects on time … ok, some girls voluntarily worked overtime and skipped lunch. With the help of the coaches the girls prepared presentations of their apps. The final event of the “App Summer Camp” was open to the public - and many people were interested in what the girls had developed in the four days: In front of 70 guests the girls rocked the presentations! And that’s not all: <a href="http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beitrag/video/1946198/-Maedchen-entwickeln-Apps">The ZDF produced some nice clips about the “App Summer Camp” for “heute”, “Logo” and “heute nacht”</a>.</p>
<p>The “App Summer Camp” was an awesome experience for everyone involved - the girls, the coaches and us, the organizers. More App Camps are needed, and more will come! Please contact us for further informationen (diana@opentechschool.org). We are happy to share our experiences and to help!</p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-07-23-gesa.jpg" alt="Girls working on stuff" /></p>
Sixteen Women – One Day – Great Apps2013-07-01T00:00:00+00:00http://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/07/sixteen-women--one-day--great-apps
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-07-01-app-summer-camp/yay.jpg" alt="First run meow creates happy faces" />
Our first <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-hamburg/">OpenTechSchool event in Hamburg</a> at the <a href="http://www.hanseventures.com/">Hanse Ventures</a> office was great: Sixteen women with different backgrounds (business, teaching, design, social work, computer science,…) and more, less or no experience in programming met to learn together and teach each
other. The goal: <strong>Developing own apps</strong>!</p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-07-01-app-summer-camp/tschaka.jpg" alt="Yes, done." /></p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-07-01-app-summer-camp/screens.jpg" alt="AppInventor on participants laptops" /></p>
<p>Working with the <a href="http://appinventor.mit.edu/">MIT AppInventor</a> the first „Hello Purr“ apps were developed within minutes. You heared „meow“ here and there and everyone was happy about their first own app. More apps followed: Some programmed apps with Magic 8-Balls predicting the future, others developed a game in which you had to chase Bart and Homer Simpson and again others developed paint programs or quiz games. We were amazed by the outcome! Time just flew by and all the sudden the workshop was over. Good thing we are just starting the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-hamburg/">OpenTechSchool in Hamburg</a>: More workshops and more fun to come!</p>
<p><img src="/assets/content/2013-07-01-app-summer-camp/group.jpg" alt="The whole group" /></p>
Extending the family - Hamburg and Zurich in go position2013-05-13T00:00:00+00:00http://blog.opentechschool.org/2013/05/extending-the-family-hamburg-and-zurich-in-go-position
<p>After the successful launch of <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/melbourne/">OpenTechSchool Australia</a>, we are very happy to announce another two local teams joining the always extending OpenTechSchool movement: <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/hamburg/">Hamburg</a> and <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/zurich/">Zurich</a>. And not only are the kick-off events already set up, no the first workshops and events are on schedule in those cities already, too.</p>
<h2 id="hamburg">Hamburg</h2>
<p><img src="http://www.opentechschool.org/images/team/diana.jpg" alt="Diana" />{.team .right} <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/hamburg/">Team Hamburg</a> was initiated by Diana, who learnt about the OpenTechSchool when she participated in the <a href="/2013/01/ots-and-the-berlin-geekettes-hackathon.html">Berlin Geekettes Hackathon</a> earlier this year. Inspired by this experience she contacted the OpenTechSchool Team in Berlin about setting up an OTS in Hamburg.</p>
<p><img src="http://app-summer-camp.opentechschool.org/assets/flyer_web.gif" alt="App Summer Camp" />{.thumb .left} She already had a concrete project in mind, too: the <a href="http://app-summer-camp.opentechschool.org/">App Summer Camp</a> Hamburg, taking place 16th to 19th July, is a full week program in which teenage girls will learn to code and publish their first mobile app. And it will also be the first project OpenTechSchool Hamburg. The official OTS Team Kick-off will take place the week before, July 11th at ThoughtWorks <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-hamburg/events/115518512/">and can be found on meetup.com</a>.</p>
<h2 id="zurich">Zurich</h2>
<p><img src="http://www.opentechschool.org/images/team/robert.jpg" alt="Robert" />{.team .right} Our dearest Python coach and one of the main authors behind the great Python Beginners material recently went to Zurich to work at Google – say what? – and decided to take the OpenTechSchool with him. A few weeks in, he has proven there is an interest for such a learning community indeed and <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/zurich/">the team</a> had their <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-zurich/events/116036042/">kick off meeting on May 5th</a>.</p>
<p>The first workshop is on the schedule as well already, <a href="http://colab-zurich.ch/">Colab</a> is willing to host the Python Beginners for a Saturday afternoon and Robert is currently <a href="http://www.meetup.com/opentechschool-zurich/messages/boards/thread/34200822">compiling a list of coaches and their available dates</a> in order to find the best date to host as many learners as possible. So if you are around or will be there at some point, please put your information in the corresponding <a href="http://doodle.com/hid8nn9p73tydyv4">doodle</a>.</p>
<p>Exciting times!</p>
<p><em>P.S.: If you are interested in starting something in your city, there is a <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/handbooks/city-blueprint.html">new city blueprint</a> in our <a href="http://www.opentechschool.org/handbooks/">handsbooks</a> to help you get started…</em></p>
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